hi, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, commuter chaos in the wake of superstorm sandy. look at this. it is what a return to normal looks like post-sandy this morning in new york and new jersey. massive gridlock. thousands upon thousands lining up, waiting for public transportation in certain spots. this new video taken within the last hour in brooklyn. all of these people hoping to board a bus to get into manhattan. on the highways into the city, police check points and hov restrictions in place. look at that line of cars. only cars with three people or more are allowed to cross bridges and tunnels on to the island. they just made an exception to that rule saying that black cars and taxis are exempt. however, these lines are stretching for miles upon miles. meanwhile, more staggering news on the terrible toll of this storm. more than 80 people now confirmed dead. damage estimates topping $60 billion and climbing.

5.6 million people remain without electricity. the national guard has been called into communities like hoboken, new jersey, where tens of thousands are reported stranded by still high flood waters. president obama will return to the trail today. the first time since the storm. he's going to speak live this hour in wisconsin at an event that his campaign is calling his closing argument. now, his return to the trail today coming one day after he toured the hard-hit jersey shore with the new jersey governor chris christie. the two leaders literally offering shoulders to cry on and words of inspiration and support. >> we'll help you get it all together, all right? i promise. i promise. you're going to be okay. everybody is safe, right? that's the most important thing. we're going to get this whole thing done. >> i can't thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and

for the people of our state. >> well, governor romney is on his second official day back on the trail post-sandy. chivalry is dead. at his campaign stop in roanoke, virginia, just last hour, romney was in full attack mode. >> do you want for more years like the last four years? i mean, do you want four more years where 23 million americans are struggling to have a good job? do you want four more years where earnings are going down every year? >> so this hour, we are awaiting a live update from new york city. mayor michael bloomberg on what has been a commuting nightmare in and around the country's biggest city. it's something the likes of which have not been seen since 9/11. we're going to bring the mayor's comments to you live as soon as he steps up to the podium. first, let's get out to our reporters covering the aftermath of this superstorm. cnbc's scott cohn is at the port just south of the brooklyn bridge.

katy is in the flood-soaked hoboken area. we want to start with scott. explain what you're seeing in lower manhattan, how new yorkers are dealing today. >> sure, thomas. it really is a mess here. let me give you a sense of where i am. just south of the brooklyn bridge. i'm on water street. the east river is a little over a quarter mile that way. at the height of sandy, the water on water street was about up to here. so that can give you a sense of the damage that it's done to the buildings here. behind me is a deli, the best of new york food deli that's been in business for 20 years. we got a look inside earlier this morning. basically, everything is lost. there still is water up to the ceiling in the basement. they've lost at least $.25 million of infrastructure, another $100,000 worth of food. they don't believe any of it is insured. as i said, the business has been in existence for 20 years. they don't know if they're going to come back.

next door is a health club, new york sports club. that has also been inundated. while we talk about con edison, the local utility, having a lot of power starting to come back, and it is coming back in pockets of lower manhattan, they still are pumping water out of many of these buildings. so building by building, they may not be able to get power on any time soon. that gives you a little bit of sense of just what's going on here and how long it's going to take for this key part of the nation's largest city to come back. the financial heart of the city, it's going to be a long climb. thomas. >> it's going to be a long climb. we keep looking at these commuter images coming into the city. absolutely amazing. the lines of cars of people trying to pour back in. the lines at the bus terminals for people who are trying to take buses back into the city. right now there is a transportation emergency that was set in place by the governor, meaning that mass transit is free for right now, but we can look at all of the people trying to get back to

normal. scott, thank you. we want to turn now to katy turr. she's in the flood-soaked hoboken, new jersey, area. if you're familiar with the city, you can look across the city and see the hamlet. this city now dealing with the toxic mix of storm surge and sewage. katy, what are you seeing? >> well, it's certainly better looking than it was yesterday. if you remember during our hit yesterday, the water was about up to here. now it's receded on the streets. what's left is this mix of mud and sludge and sewage. it's pretty nasty. but that doesn't mean the water is all gone. there's still some significant water here. if you look down here in this basement, that's four to six feet of water. some people are saying they have eight feet in their basements as we speak. there's still a lot of issues. hoboken, the problem with hoboken and this sort of storm surge is it's below sea level. most of the city's below sea level. when the water comes in from a surge, when it comes in from

heavy rains, they just get hit really hard here. they do have an issue about pumping all their water out. they had 500 million gallons of water they needed to get out of this city. they're probably halfway there. the mayor here said it would take about two days to get it all out. they started pumping yesterday. they will continue pumping today. maybe by the end of the day today, tomorrow, they'll get this water out of these basements. look how high it came up. i mean, it was -- this is about four feet up in everybody's home. higher in some areas. lower in some areas, of course. at least 50% of this town was affected in one way or the other. they still don't have power. they were just getting outside for the first time yesterday to assess the damage. there was still a lot of water yesterday. they were climbing through this mix of sewage and heating oil. that certainly wasn't good. now there's still the issue of all that's left on the ground here. also power. power has been out this entire time. pse&g says it will take seven to

ten days before it will go back on. >> katy, i think what's amazing for everybody to see is what water demarcation line showing how much water was pouring in. the standing water flowing through hoboken. again, people are familiar with the west side of new york, they can look over the hudson and ho bo -- hoboken is a really booming hamlet right now. >> absolutely. what's crazy is the water didn't rush in and rush out. it stayed here. that can cause a lot of problems, especially for power lines, mold. if you have kids in house, you don't that want mold. it's still not done here by any stretch of the imagination. >> long way to go. kay city, thank you. want to show you new images coming in right now over in staten island. these are just some images of people at gas stations. gas is a hot commodity in the city right now with long lines of people trying to get gasoline into their cars. there's the hov restriction,

trying to get into new york city. we saw the long lines of people this morning where the mayor had mandated at least three people had to be in a car, although the restrictions have been lifted for black cars and taxi ccabtax. we're going to have craig melvin reporting from staten island coming up. this sunday, the new york city marathon is supposed to begin in staten island. it is still on for now. right now, there are more than 4.5 million customers without power in more than a dozen states. a majority of those without power are in new york and new jersey. those outages stretch as far west as ohio and as far south as north carolina. with the president's return to the trail today, both he and mitt romney have a hectic pace planned in the last days before this election. it is coming up in five days. again, we are awaiting for the start of the president's first campaign event since he canceled all stops ahead of the storm. the next few days are going to find the president hitting key battle ground and hitting them hard. we have wisconsin, nevada, colorado, ohio, florida, and new

hampshire. romney with fewer stops planned to so far. the governor planning in virginia, wisconsin, ohio, new hampshire, and colorado as well. we want to bring in thursday's power panel. guys, it's good to have you here. alice, i want to start with you governor romney, as we mentioned, speaking moments ago. he wasn't holding back on his criticisms of the president. take a listen. >> he's got to find something to suggest it's going to be better over the next four years. so he came up with an idea next week, which is he's going to create the department of business. i don't think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs. >> now that he's back officially on the campaign trail, mitt romney and any post-sandy chivalry is dead. is it risky for him to be doing this so soon in the wake of a disaster, especially in

virginia, where they were under orders of sandy's presence coming their way? luckily, they were spared. >> governor romney showed tremendous compassion for those who are affected by sandy and took time off and gave relief efforts and encouraged people to donate to the american red cross. we continue to offer our prayers of support for people who have been in sandy's wake. there's a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done. what's important is what we have coming up in the next five days. we have the most important election of our lifetime. governor romney was right to take time off to honor those who have been affected by sandy, but he's got to continue to seal the deal on his important race for presidency. he did so. we don't need the president to have another bureaucrat to handle business. we need a business expert like mitt romney. unleash american energy, impose

sa sanctions for unfair china trading practices. these are important things because the economy is the number one issue. >> you're trying to cram a lot of things in in these last five days. >> chris, let's get to it. we're going to be listening to the president later this hour. his campaign describing the speech as a closing argument to the voters. what tone does he need to strike? chris, does he really need to keep it respectful or hit back against mitt romney? >> you know, i don't think he necessarily needs to hit back. i personally think, no surprise, that it was a mistake for governor romney to come out as harsh as he did. when there's a national crisis, something as significant and so many people have been affected by hurricane sandy, the last thing people think about and talk about and want to focus on is politics. you have to be very careful about that. i think the president is going to come out, especially in light of what you've seen over the last few days, and strike a more positive, unifying tone. i think it's a smart strategy,

especially coming down to the last days. let's be honest. i think most americans are sick and tired of this election and what they see as an overly negative one. i think it's the smart approach. i just don't understand -- i haven't been able to understand much of what romney has done. this is just the latest befuding move. >> on the flip side, maybe mitt romney needed to come out swinging because of the optic with the popular governor chris christie. it's something he had to come back against. listen to this, governor christie responding to people who have been critical of his praise of president obama. >> there will be some folks who will criticize me for complimenting him. well, you know what? i speak the truth. that's what i always do. sometimes you guys like it. sometimes you don't. sometimes politicians like it. sometimes they don't. i say what i feel and what i believe. i'm just doing the same thing with the president of the united states. i do pinch myself every day. when i got out of marine one,

i'm pinching myself. believe me. >> just learning right now that chris christie is going to give an 11:30 a.m. briefing, an update on what they're seeing in new jersey. i want to point out to everybody, because this is really surprising. chris christie was a wrecking ball of rhetoric at the rnc. a wrecking ball of rhetoric against the president and his leadership. now they are side by side and chris christie couldn't be more com complimentary of seeing the leadership the president represents. >> i disagree a little bit. i don't think it's surprising. people come together in things like this. that's a good thing. good governance is good politics. if chris christie and president obama do a good job handling hurricane sandy, voters will like them more. chris christie is a governor of new jersey first, a romney surrogate second. he's got to do a good job for his state.

this is an important moment for him to stand on his own two feet. so i'm not that surprised he'd be happy the president is helping him help his state. >> does it prove those kinds of speeches we saw at the rnc, what a bunch of hogwash that is? >> i think their big difference are in health care. mitt romney at some point should come back to the issues. president obama should highlight disagreements with mitt romney on health care issues and other things. i think in terms of the hurricane, it's important that people work together. it's a good thing that we're seeing governor christie are working together on issues people need to see unified government. >> great bipartisanship when it comes to those issues. let's hash out the new round of battleground polling. our poll gives the path six-point lead in iowa. obama three points ahead in wisconsin. that is within the margin of error. two in new hampshire. again, within the margin of error there.

the 2% difference. the president at 49% in all three of these states. this after a poll yesterday had him five points ahead in ohio. is there any way for mitt romney to overcome this fire wall that seems to be pretty firm in president obama's favor? >> yes, if the polls are wrong. most of these polls are likely voter models. the polls are making the assumption with the turnout, what the shape of the electorate is going to be on election day. if that model is wrong, you have a major problem. you could have more republicans turning out and fewer democrats turning out. if the demographics are wrong, the same thing. this has been a very difficult -- i'm going to be honest, a very difficult election for me to get a handle on because you see this continuing schism between the national polls which show a tied race or a small, narrow romney lead in the key battlegrounds where you can show president obama ahead. it really comes down to a very simple fact. if democrats turn out, you know, at the percentages these voter

models are assuming, president obama will win this election. if they don't, it's going to be a tough night. >> i want to show everybody this. chuck todd asked the obama campaign about the president's midwest fire wall this morning on "the daily rundown." this is her answer. >> is your fire wall going to hold? >> yeah. it is going to hold. we feel good about where we are. we're ahead in all of these states. there's no clear pathway for mitt romney. i don't think they can point to a clear pathway. >> alice, i'm sure you heard mark on "morning joe" saying some republicans are telling him that the president has this in the bag. what are you heari ining behind scenes? >> i'm hearing we have a great ground game. i've been there myself. i was recently in michigan and ohio. i've seen the turnout. we have tremendous enthusiasm. the numbers we have for republicans coming out is overperforming. we're doing better than we did in '08. to chris' point, the polling data is important, but the

actual activity and early and absentee voting is key. we're seeing more republicans turning out than democrats at this point. >> we're five days out. gang, thanks so much. my great appreciation for all three of you. starting this weekend, i want to point out we are turning rockefeller plaza into democracy plaza. very cool information and things for you and your kids to learn about. we're going to be broadcasting live from there throughout the weekend and next week. we hope to see you turn out. coming into the news room now, five massive u.s. military craft will be helping with the aftermath of hurricane sandy. coming up next, though, is this a man-made storm? there's lots of talk about climate change right now being responsible for the devastation caused by hurricane sandy. certainly the frequency of these types of storms we're seeing now

needs to be questioned. my colleague chris hayes is going to weigh in on that next. and if you have pictures to share of long gas lines, long commute lines, tweet them to us and include the hash tag, msnbcpics. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?

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welcome back, everybody. the enormity of the impact of sandy in the new york metro area has many people bringing up two words, climate change. normally busy hubs like battery park, where under water, was not seen in decades. here was governor cuomo bringing up the topic of climate change during a recent news conference. >> anyone who says there's not a dramatic change in weather patterns, i think is denying reality. and i would like to say this is probably the last occurrence we will have, i don't believe that.

i said to the president kiddingly the other day, we have a 100-year flood every two years now. >> joining me now is chris hayes. he's the host of "up with chris hayes" here on msnbc. chris, good to have you here. i want to show everybody this. it's pretty scary stuff that shows what could happen in the city with an 18-foot storm surge. there's one word that will pass through everybody's mind. basically, catastrophe. one wond what we're seeing today. governor cuomo wasn't the only person to bring up climate change. so did al gore in a blog post he recently put up. he called sandy a warning. do you think this is a big warning and the fact it has the governor's attention -- the governor's attention's been on this. he's saying the frequency of this, it's not political, but we got to look at it from the frequency standpoint. >> we are entering an era of climate disruption. we are right now seeing the beginnings of this. this is going to be the warmest

year on record. we had record droughts. we're seeing disruption across the planet. it's important for people to understand this. we started putting carbon at industrial scale into the atmosphere starting in the industrial revolution. there's already more than 100 years of that in the air. we've already warmed the earth's temperature by about 8/10 of a degree. people will look at this and say, well, there were bad storms in the 1930s. indeed, there were. the best way to think about this is to think about steroids and baseball. all right? if a baseball player is on steroids, you can't point at any one home run and say, that home run was because of steroids. if you look over the course of the year and they hit 60 homers where they used to hit 35, you know something is up. when we see the frequency and intensity of storms, every single metric we have right now is telling us that climate change isn't some abstraction in the future we need to worry about and prepare for. it is happening now. it is out the door. there are two things that need

to happen politically. we need a radical, crash program to dramatically reduce the amount of carbon we put in the atmosphere. in parallel, we need to reconceptualize our civil engineers to deal with this. >> for people that may not look at this, the easy way to look at it is the amount of named storms. we're at the end of the alphabet in this one year. 14 months ago we had irene. look at the year we've had, just 2012 as our example. how are politicians going to be able to talk about this? cuomo is trying to dance around it by not bringing up climate p change, the word frequency. the patterns we need to look at. how do they do this without shooting themselves in the foot? >> they need to be bold about it. they need to name the facts. it cannot be cowed by the fact

that the energy companies have created a massive infrastructure to bludgeon anyone who steps out of line on this. 30 years from now we will look back at the silence of this issue in horror. it will seem inconceivable we sat and let this go by. the fact of the matter is there are going to be more climate events like this. we already saw it this summer. you had fields burning. you had incredible drought across much of the country. more and more is going to be the case. the actual effects of people's every day lives are visible and observable. we're already seeing it showing up in the polling. you're not going to be able to deny reality that people are witnessing tangibly every day. there's going to be some massive cataclysmic event in the near future, i fear, that is going to take what it's going to precipitate the action we need. >> chris, great to have you here. as a reminder, you can catch

chris hayes here up saturdays and sundays at 8:00 a.m. join the crew. we're back after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ girl ] hey! [ both laugh ] ♪

welcome back, everybody. want to refresh you. sandy affecting this area. we're talking about the mid-atlantic, upper new york, the national park reps saying both the docks of liberty and ellis island got badly damaged. they're closed indefinitely. park reps say the it's going to be quite a while before the islands reopen for tourists. the statue of liberty had just reopened before sandy hit after renovations there. coney island hospital joins bellevue and nyu as the latest facility to close its doors. as for transportation, here's what drivers had to deal with this morning. official instituted this mandatory city bound car pool rule.

three or more people to a car, no exceptions. police ordered drivers to turn around if they were under that limit. on new york's staten island there are is still flooding taking place in the streets. craig melvin is one block from where the ocean's edge used to be. craig, good morning. >> good morning to you. we are in what's left of the midland valley neighborhood. i'm going to step out of the way so you can see what we're talking about in terms of damage. a number of cars here on the street. these cars have been flooded. we're told that very few of these cars were actually on this street. they were all moved here. you can see the telephone pole here that was knocked over by the sheer force of the water as well. then there's this house on the corner. i have the gentleman here who lives inside this house. sir, first of all, what's your name? >> daniel boyd. >> i saw you go inside, gauging the damage there. it looks bad on the outside. how bad is it on the inside?

>> you know, it's a little bad. you know, we've had this every year, but this is the worst. >> this is the worst you've seen? >> yeah, absolutely. >> are you going to be able to move back inside? >> definitely not. this won't be repaired for a long time. this is probably a month to put all this stuff, the whole sidewalk caved in. i don't know. >> you seem to be in relatively good spirits. >> what can i do? >> thank you for spending time with us, sir. i want to update you on one thing. 15 bodice recoves recovered her staten island. police continue to search for the two little boys who were knocked out of their mother's arms by rushing flood waters. i talked to a police officer a little while ago. they told me there's nothing new to report with regards to that. we have seen a great deal of damage over the course of the morning. one of the things that struck us most, the gas line. i think i heard you mention this

at the top of your hour. we stopped counting at 100 cars. we talked to a gentleman who had been waiting for three and a half hours for gas this morning. of course, the fear at this point is when some of those folks at the end of the line get to the beginning of the line, they'll be out of gas. we'll continue to keep updating you. that's the latest for now. >> nbc's craig melvin. appreciate it. thank you, sir. this morning, 3/4 of the residents on long island woke up without power. joining me now live on the phone is new york congressman steve israel whose district encompasses a large portion of island. what can you give us on the progress this morning? >> we've gone from a wind emergency and a flood emergency to a power emergency. as you just said, there are nearly 3/4 of 1 million long islanders who do not have power. long island power authority is making a slow and incremental progress. what concerns me at this point

is last night for the first time since the storm, the temperatures dipped down into the 30s. so long islanders are experiencing very cold temperatures. if it continues, this becomes beyond a power emergency. it becomes a public health and safety emergency. one thing that the administration has done, which i'm grateful for, is they've deployed national forest service assets, chainsaws, woodchipers, and personnel, about 120 national forest service personnel to long island to help with tree removal and downed trees. >> it is pretty amazing when we think about this being november 1st. here we are talking about being in the third day of this hurricane post-sandy new life for a lot of people. as you point out, the temps are dropping. we're going from fall into winter. sir, even though before the storm's full force had hit had, you had appealed to fema to send crews equipped to remove downed trees, try to help restore power lines as quickly as possible. how is fema responding?

>> i visited with fema yet at the federal staging area. i will say initially i was somewhat concerned because there were some forest service assets on the ground. they obviously were involved in a search and rescue mission. that's critically important. as the search and rescue mission begins to wind down, i had emphasized the need for the forest service to get on the streets. you cannot drive anywhere on long island or virtually anywhere on long island without having to detour because there is a tree blocking the way and a tree that has brought power lines down with it. so i'd asked fema to ratchet up their response to help with the removal of downed trees. about an hour later, i must say, i received word from fema that they had asked the national forest service to not only deploy assets but deploy additional assets. there are about 40 forest service personnel on long island when i had asked. they put an additional 40 yesterday. i'm told that there's an additional 40 on the way right

now. >> congressman steve israel, sir, thanks for taking time this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> i want to show you brand new pictures just in to us now from new jersey showing this long line of people waiting for gas. this is in the town of lindon. the few stations that have power and are open are seeing lines just like this one. as we were hearing from craig melvin a few minutes ago, he was seeing a gas line where more than 100 different people were in the line. we're going to have our richard lui, who is covering that story, joining us later in this hour as well. also, we want to pass along this information. if you want to help the victims of superstorm sandy, just go to nbcnews.com to find out how. we're back with more in a moment. bronchitis and emphysema. bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both.

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♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. welcome back, everybody. we're keeping a close eye on the international airport there in green bay, wisconsin. supporters of the president are waiting for him to disembark air force one. in the state of wisconsin, it is

a very close race, but polls give the president a slight edge there. we're going to cover the president's remarks live as soon as redisembarks and gets ready to speak to the crowd. we are less than 24 hours to the last unemployment report before tuesday's election. there's good news to report on that jobs front. the labor department reports that applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 9,000 last week. payroll provider abp says business added 158,000 jobs in october. now, today also brought some good numbers on consumer confidence, which could spell and should spell good news for retailers. professor, it's great to have you here. these numbers, as we look ahead to the unemployment report, what can we glean from this? >> thomas, this is probably the most important unemployment report in years. many people anticipating the november 2nd report assumed that the race would be a little bit,

well, either obama or romney would be farther ahead. but this report comes four days before election day. the entire campaign, really both campaigns, are premised on the notion of either the economy is growing or it's not growing. either jobs are coming back or it's not coming back. the assumption among most economists who are looking at this is that the establishment survey, the survey of the employers, will show about 125,000 new jobs created in october. and th and that the unemployment rate will stay close to what it was, about 7. %. the real issue is the direction of the unemployment report. if it looks like things continue to get a little bit better, that improves obama's chances. that improves the president's chances. if it looks like things are getting worse, however, that really does lend some credence to former governor romney's view that things are not what they

should be. >> professor, what about sandy? any disruption it could add to the accuracy of the reading, the jobs report itself? >> the surveys were done before sandy. i don't expect sandy is going to have much influence. i don't think it's going to have any influence on the employment report. it will be for october, but most of the surveys were done in mid or in the third week of october, before sandy had any effect. >> all right. so let's talk about what's ahead after this. we talk about the fiscal cliff that is looming. another debt ceiling debate waiting for all americans on capitol hill. what's out there that could send the unemployment rate back up? >> uncertainty about the outcome of the fiscal cliff. now, americans are mostly now, obviously, they're looking at the election. people are not talking about the fiscal cliff. consumer confidence is up. in part because nobody has paid much attention. but unless nothing is done before january 1st, we are going

to see taxes rise on most people because that's the end of the payroll tax cut that president obama and congress agreed to. that also means that the end of the bush tax cuts, not only for people over $250,000 of income, but also everybody else who were to some extent, their taxes were also reduced by the bush tax cut. the alternative minimum tax, that also would kick in. there's no alternative to the alternative minimum tax on the table. so you have the typical family after january 1st seeing a tax hike in the range of $1500 to $3500 for the year 2013. now, i expect congress is going to do something, if it doesn't act before january 1st, it's probably going to act sometime in january and then make what they do retroactive to january 1st. >> all right. looking at the long-term and the short-term. we're going to know what those

jobs numbers are tomorrow. great to see you, as always. thank you. >> thanks, thomas. >> so just to point out again, we are awaiting for live remarks from the president as he disembarks from the plane there in wisconsin. he's at the austin stroble international airport in green bay, wisconsin. a nail biter within the margin of error. we are going to watch the president, who is running across the tarmac there, to meet some people who have shown up for this campaign event. again, this is the first time the president is back on the campaign trail. he had taken time off the trail before hurricane sandy hit to deal with preparations leading up to the storm. then as we have all seen over the last several days taking time off the campaign trail to deal with the aftermath of that storm. most recently yesterday, touring the hard-hit state of new jersey. touring it with the governor, chris christie, as we saw at the top of the hour some of the images from that day where the president was reassuring people who are hard hit by the destruction of hurricane sandy that they will be able to rebuild, reminding those people

that they have a friend in the white house, and they certainly have a friend in the governor, chris christie, who's been working tirelessly throughout the state to make sure his state does bounce back. we're going to listen in to the president who's about to speak at his event in wisconsin. >> hello, wisconsin! it is good to be back in green bay, wisconsin. [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank all of you for giving such a warm welcome to a bears fan. and i especially want to thank one of the greatest defensive players in nfl history for being here today, charles woodson! and i want to thank charles because i understand he made an announcement about a gift to the red cross to help support everybody over on the east coast. that's the kiennd of guy he is.

we're grateful to him. thank you, charles. let's also give it up for your next united states senator tammy baldwin. [ cheers and applause ] she's going to be following leaders like herb cole and russ feingold in being fierce fighters for the people of wisconsin. now, for the past few days all of us have been focused on one of the worst storms in our lifetimes. we're awed and humbled by nature's destructive power. we mourn the loss of so many people. our hearts go out to those who have lost their loved ones. we pledged to help those whose lives have been turned upside down. and i was out in new jersey yesterday and saw the devastation. you really get a sense of, you know, how difficult this is going to be for a lot of people. but, you know, we've also been

inspired these past few days because when disaster strikes, we see america at its best. all the petty differences that consume us in normal times all seem to melt away. there are no democrats or republicans during a storm. they're just fellow americans. [ cheers and applause ] leaders of different parties working to fix what's broken. neighbors helping neighbors cope with tragedy. communities rallying to rebuild. a spirit that says in the end we're all in this together. that we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. that spirit has guided this country along its improbable journey for more than two centuries. it's carried us through the trials of the last four years.

in 2008, we're in the middle of two wars in the worst economic crisis since the great depression. today our businesses have created over 5 million new jobs. the american auto industry is back on top. american forest fimanufacturing growing at the fastest pace in 15 years. we're less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in 20 years. home values are on the rise. thanks to the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in iraq is over. the war in afghanistan is winding down. al qaeda has been decimated. osama bin laden is dead. so we've made real progress these past four years.

but we know our work is not done yet. as long as there's a single american who wants a job but can't find one, our work isn't done. as long as there are families who are working harder but falling behind, our work isn't done. as long as there's a child languishing in poverty, barred from opportunity, anywhere in this country, our work is not yet done. our fight goes on because we know this nation cannot succeed without a growing, thriving middle class and strong, sturdy ladders into the middle class. our fight goes on because america's always done its best when everybody gets a fair shot and everybody's doing their fair share and everybody's playing by the same rules. that's what we believe. that's why you elected me in 2008. that's why i'm running for a

second term as president, because we've got more work to do. [ chanting ] now, we knew from the beginning that our work would take more than one year or even one term. because, let's face it, the middle class was getting hammered long before the financial crisis hit. technology made us more productive, but it also made a lot of good jobs obsolete. global trade brought us cheaper products, but it also allowed companies to hire in low-wage countries. american workers saw their paychecks squeezed, even as corporate profits rose and ceo salaries exploded. and the guaranteed security of pensions and health care slowly started disappearing.

in these fundamental changes in the economy, the rise of technology and global competition, they're real. can' away. but here's what i know, wisconsin. we can meet them. because we're americans. we've got the world's best workers and the best entrepreneurs. we've got the best scientists and the best researchers. the best colleges and universities, and we've got the most innovative spirit. we have everything we need to thrive in this new economy in this new century, and there's not a country on earth that wouldn't trade places with the united states of america. but we have a choice to make. in five days we will choose our next president. and it's more than just a choice between two candidates or two parties. you'll be making a choice

between two fundamentally different visions of america. one where we return to the top-down policies that crashed our economy. don't boo, wisconsin, vote! or a future that's built on a strong and growing middle class. and wisconsin, we know what the choice needs to be. we're here today because we believe that if this country invests in the skills and ideas of its people, good jobs and businesses will follow. we believe that america's free market's been the engine of america's progress, driven by risk takers and innovators and dreamers. but we also understand that this in this country people succeed when they've got a chance to get a good education and learn new skills. and, by the way, so did the businesses that hire those people or the companies that those folks start. we believe that when we support research in the medical breakthroughs or new technology,

entire new industries will start here and stay here somewhere hire here. we don't believe government should poke its nose into everything we do, but we do believe this country's stronger when there are rules to protect our kids from toxic dumping and mercury pollution. when there are rules to protect consumers and ordinary families from credit card companies engaging in deceptive practices, mortgage lenders that are unscrupulous. we grow faster when our tax code rewards hard work and companies that create jobs here in america. and we believe that quality, affordable health care, and a dignified retirement aren't just achievable goals, they're a measure of our values as a nation. that's what we believe. for eight years, we had a president who shared these beliefs. his name was bill clinton.

when he was first elected, he asked the wealthiest americans to pay a little more, so we could reduce the deficit and still make investments in things like education, train, science, research. and guess what? plenty of folks running for congress at the time said it would hurt the economy. that it would kill jobs. and if that argument sounds familiar, one of those candidates back then happens to be running for president right now. and it turns out, their math was just as bad back then as it is today because, by the end of bill clin totoclinton's turn am created 23 million jobs. the biggest surplus in our history. wisconsin we know the ideas that work. we also know the ideas that don't work. because in the eight years after bill clinton left office his policies were reversed. the wealthiest americans got tax

cuts they didn't need, and that we couldn't afford. companies enjoyed tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, insurance companies, oil companies, wall street given free license do what they pleased. folks, at the top got to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. and result of this top-down economics was falling incomes, record deficits, smallest job growth in a half century and economic crisis that we've been cleaning up for the last four years. now, in the closing weeks of this campaign, governor romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly. the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for past four years. and he's offering them up as change. he's saying he's the candidate of change. well, let me tell you, wisconsin, we know what change

looks like. and what the governor's offering sure ain't change. giving more power back to the biggest banks isn't change. leaving millions without health insurance isn't change. another $5 trillion tax cut that favors wealthy isn't change. turning medicare into a voucher is change but we don't want that change. refusing to answer questions about the details of your policies isn't change. ruling out compromise by pledging to rubber stamp the tea party's agenda as president, that's definitely not change. in fact, that's exactly the attitude in washington that needs to go. here's the thing, wisconsin. after four years as president, you know me by now. you may not agree with every decision i've made. you may be frustrated at pace of

change but you know what i believe. you know where i stand. you know i'm willing to make tough decisions, even when they're not politically convenient. and you know i'll fight for you and your families every single day as hard as i know how. you know that. i know what change looks like because i fought for it. you have too. and after all we've been through together, we sure as heck can't give up now. change is a country where americans of every age have the skills and education that good jobs now require. and government can't do this alone. but don't tell me that hiring more teachers won't help this economy grow or help young people compete. don't tell me students who can't afford college should borrow money from their parents. that wasn't an option for me.

i'll bet it wasn't an option for a whole lot of you. we shouldn't be ending college tax credit to pay for millionaires' tax cuts. we should be making college more affordable for everyone who is willing to work for it. we should recruit 100,000 math and science teachers so high-tech highway jobs aren't created created in china. they're created right here in green bay, wisconsin. we should work with community colleges to train another 2 million americans with skills that businesses are looking for right now. that's my plan for the future. that's what change is. that's the america we're fighting for in this election. change comes when we live up to our legacy of innovation. and make america home to the next generation of manufacturing, scientific discovery, technological breakthroughs. i'm proud i've bet on american workers and american ingenuity

and the american auto industry. and today, we're not just building cars again, we're building better cars. cars that, by the middle of the next decade will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. today, there are thousands of workers building long-lasting batteries and wind turbines and solar panels all across the country. jobs that weren't there four years ago. and sure, not all technologies we bet on will pan out, some of the businesses we encourage will fail. but i promise you this, there is a future for manufacturing here in america. there's a future for clean energy here in america. and i refuse to see that future in other countries. i don't want tax codes rewarding companies for overseas. i want to reward companies that create jobs here in america. i don't want to a tax code that subsidize oil company profits. i want to support the energy jobs of tomorrow and new

technologies that cut our oil imports in half. that's my plan for jobs and growth. that's the future of america that i see. change is finally turning the page on a decade of war to do some nation building here at home. so long as i'm commander in chief, we will pursue our enemies with the strongest military the world's ever known. but it's time to use the savings from ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan to start paying down our debts here and rebuilding america. right now, we can put people back to work fixing up roads and bridges. right now, we can expand broadband into rural neighborhoods and make sure our schools are state of the art. let's put americans back to work doing the work that needs to be done. and let's especially focus on our veterans because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their heads or the care that they need when they